Britain’s Most Prolific Burglar
Britain’s Most Prolific Burglar

Author: Martyn R Beardsley

Publisher: Pen and Sword History

Published: 2024-04-04

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 1399054872

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Harry Edward Vickers, aka Flannelfoot, was possibly Britain’s most successful ever burglar. Not financially - he stole cash and low-value items (even, bizarrely, false teeth!). The success was in his hundreds of burglaries spread over many years without being caught. The lives of career criminals are invariably dotted with prison sentences, but thanks to his caution and cunning, Flannelfoot operated night after night, year after year with an impunity which embarrassed the police. In the twenties and thirties, Londers were deserting the overcrowded capital for the burgeoning suburbs of ‘Metroland’. Flannelfoot was equally attracted to these areas, and one of his hallmarks was to steal a bicycle at the scene of his last break-in of the night and cycle to the nearest tube station. Burglars and burglaries are never glamorous, but one reason why the Flannelfoot saga engendered fascination more than fear is that he was never confrontational, never violent, and in fact so stealthy that few ever saw him. His one-man crime epidemic led to Scotland Yard assembling a team more used to solving murders than the plundering of gas meters. After a lengthy and painstaking investigation, a carefully planned night-time surveillance operation involving several teams of officers led to the sensational capture of Flannelfoot. Flannelfoot routinely features in crime anthologies and was the subject of a feature film, but this is the first full biography of the man who became a legend in his own lifetime.

Britain’s Most Prolific Burglar
Britain’s Most Prolific Burglar

Author: Martyn R Beardsley

Publisher: Pen and Sword History

Published: 2024-04-04

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 1399054856

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Harry Edward Vickers, aka Flannelfoot, was possibly Britain’s most successful ever burglar. Not financially - he stole cash and low-value items (even, bizarrely, false teeth!). The success was in his hundreds of burglaries spread over many years without being caught. The lives of career criminals are invariably dotted with prison sentences, but thanks to his caution and cunning, Flannelfoot operated night after night, year after year with an impunity which embarrassed the police. In the twenties and thirties, Londers were deserting the overcrowded capital for the burgeoning suburbs of ‘Metroland’. Flannelfoot was equally attracted to these areas, and one of his hallmarks was to steal a bicycle at the scene of his last break-in of the night and cycle to the nearest tube station. Burglars and burglaries are never glamorous, but one reason why the Flannelfoot saga engendered fascination more than fear is that he was never confrontational, never violent, and in fact so stealthy that few ever saw him. His one-man crime epidemic led to Scotland Yard assembling a team more used to solving murders than the plundering of gas meters. After a lengthy and painstaking investigation, a carefully planned night-time surveillance operation involving several teams of officers led to the sensational capture of Flannelfoot. Flannelfoot routinely features in crime anthologies and was the subject of a feature film, but this is the first full biography of the man who became a legend in his own lifetime.

Britain's Most Prolific Burglar
Britain's Most Prolific Burglar

Author: Martyn R Beardsley

Publisher: Pen and Sword History

Published: 2024-01-30

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781399054836

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Harry Edward Vickers, aka Flannelfoot, was possibly Britain's most successful ever burglar. Not financially - he stole cash and low-value items (even, bizarrely, false teeth!). The success was in his hundreds of burglaries spread over many years without being caught. The lives of career criminals are invariably dotted with prison sentences, but thanks to his caution and cunning, Flannelfoot operated night after night, year after year with an impunity which embarrassed the police. In the twenties and thirties, Londoners were deserting the overcrowded capital for the burgeoning suburbs of 'Metroland'. Flannelfoot was equally attracted to these areas, and one of his hallmarks was to steal a bicycle at the scene of his last break-in of the night and cycle to the nearest tube station. Burglars and burglaries are never glamorous, but one reason why the Flannelfoot saga engendered fascination more than fear is that he was never confrontational, never violent, and in fact so stealthy that few ever saw him. His one-man crime epidemic led to Scotland Yard assembling a team more used to solving murders than the plundering of gas meters. After a lengthy and painstaking investigation, a carefully planned night-time surveillance operation involving several teams of officers led to the sensational capture of Flannelfoot. Flannelfoot routinely features in crime anthologies and was the subject of a feature film, but this is the first full biography of the man who became a legend in his own lifetime.

The Rough Guide to True Crime
The Rough Guide to True Crime

Author: Rough Guides

Publisher: Rough Guides UK

Published: 2009-09-01

Total Pages: 819

ISBN-13: 1405381396

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The Rough Guide to True Crime tells the stories of criminal acts ranging from the absurd to the appalling, using a light touch with the former and illuminating the psychology in play behind the crimes. A compilation of crime's greatest hits, preposterous occurrences and heinous acts, the Rough Guide to True Crime will satisfy the armchair voyeur and amateur criminologist alike.

A Long Time Coming
A Long Time Coming

Author: J. W. Vimikh

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Published: 2015-11-11

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 1504943090

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In this forthright, agonisingly compelling semi-autobiography, penned by the son of a black African-Caribbean father and a white English mother, five decades of family struggle are unravelled. Often emotionally charged and unsentimental, the many vicissitudes in the childhood journey of Willson, the strange fruit born of this racial mixing, are examined and contextualised. The tale that emerges, one of seemingly omnipotent adversity, is a collage of hope, aspiration, and parental love spanning life in 1950s London into the new millennium. It is a striking portrait of impressions and memories of life in modern Britain. The reader will be confronted and uplifted, may wince, even cheer as this painfully angry yet forgiving, challenging yet inspiring narrative explores universal human concepts of family, child development, teenage delinquency, race, and ancestry in our rapidly evolving world.

Ghost Burglar
Ghost Burglar

Author: Jack Burch

Publisher:

Published: 2012-04-19

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781886028951

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Bernard C. Welch was called the most prolific burglar of modern times. He eluded police up and down the East Coast for years and was finally caught only because he shot prominent heart surgeon, Dr. David Halberstam, who then hit Welch with his car as Welch fled the scene. Halberstam died and Welch was sentenced to 143 years plus life. Sent to an "escape-proof" prison in Illinois, Welch managed to trick federal officials to sending him to a facility on the Chicago River on the promise of becoming a snitch. There, he broke out with the help of an enforcer from the Aryan Nation he had hired. This book is the whole story of a Rochester, N.Y. plumber who turned thievery into a business, even to the point of keeping books and filing taxes with the IRS for a "legitimate" antiques and silver trading business.

The Last Job: "The Bad Grandpas" and the Hatton Garden Heist
The Last Job:

Author: Dan Bilefsky

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2019-04-23

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0393609529

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The definitive account of one of the most brazen jewel heists in history. Over Easter weekend 2015, a motley crew of six English thieves, several in their sixties and seventies, couldn’t resist coming out of retirement for one last career-topping heist. Their target: the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit, in the heart of London’s medieval diamond district. “The Firm” included Brian Reader, ringleader and legend in his own mind; Terry Perkins, a tough-as-nails career criminal but also a frail diabetic; Danny Jones, a fitness freak, crime enthusiast, and fabulist; Carl Wood, an extra pair of hands, and definitely more brawn than brains; John “Kenny” Collins, getaway driver, prone to falling asleep on the job; and the mysterious Basil, a red-wigged associate who has only now been identified. Perhaps not the smoothest of criminals—one took a public bus to the scene of the crime; another read Forensics for Dummies in hopes he would learn how to avoid getting caught—they planned the job over fish and chips at their favorite pubs. They were cantankerous and coarse, dubbed the “Bad Grandpas” by British tabloids, and were often as likely to complain about one another as the current state of the country. Still, these analog thieves in a digital age managed to disable a high-security alarm system and drill through twenty inches of reinforced concrete, walking away with a stunning haul of at least $19 million in jewels, gold, diamonds, family heirlooms, and cash. Veteran reporter and former London correspondent for the New York Times Dan Bilefsky draws on unrivaled access to the leading officers on the case at the Flying Squad, the legendary Scotland Yard unit that hunted the gang, as well as notorious criminals from London’s shadowy underworld, to offer a gripping account of how these unassuming criminal masterminds nearly pulled off one of the great heists of the century.

The Great Train Robber: My Autobiography
The Great Train Robber: My Autobiography

Author: Chris Pickard

Publisher: Kings Road Publishing

Published: 2023-07-06

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 1789465982

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What is it that fascinates so many people about Ronnie Biggs and makes him a household name sixty years on from the crime that made his name? Is it the man or the myth that makes Ron a latter-day Robin Hood, and the odd man out who is best remembered from a gang of sixteen who held up a mail train in August 1963? This book covers Ron's entire life including the Great Train Robbery, his conviction and subsequent escape from HMP Wandsworth. Ron tells how he managed to outrun and outthink the posse of law enforcement officers and the media that chased him around the world as one of its most wanted men. From his time in Australia, to his discovery and arrest in Brazil in 1974, it is all included here. It covers the two attempts to kidnap him, and his son Mike's rise to stardom. For the first time Ron tells exactly what has happened to him since the early 1990s to today, including his strokes, his attempted suicide, the death of his partner and friends, the extradition attempts, the Rio carnival tribute, his decision to come back to the UK, and his much publicised return in 2001 after 13,068 days on the run. It also covers his death in 2013 and the legacy he leaves behind. This is not only Ronald Biggs' autobiography; it is also the most complete biography of one of the most famous names in British life of the last 50 years. A brand new 10,000-word timeline covers not only the life and times of Ronald Biggs, but includes the most detailed timeline and facts ever published about the events surrounding the Great Train Robbery itself. This book will stand the test of time as the most complete telling of the life and times of the man who is Ronald Arthur Biggs, and his part in the Great Train Robbery.

Night Stalker
Night Stalker

Author: John McShane

Publisher: Kings Road Publishing

Published: 2011-06-23

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1843586401

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On Sunday 15 November 2009, detectives hunting one of the most prolific sex offenders in Britain finally made an arrest; 17 years after the first terrifying attack took place. Delroy Grant, the 'Night Stalker' first struck in 1992, raping an 84-year-old woman in her flat in Croydon. What followed was a sickening series of horrifying sexual assaults on elderly victims across south London, Kent and Surrey. All the victims lived alone and were woken in the night by a man dressed in black, his face obscured by a balaclava. Delroy would shine a torch into their eyes, or switch off their electricity, before subjecting them to terrifyingly violent attacks. DNA profiling revealed a list of 21,000 possible suspects before officers working on Operation Minstead finally pieced together enough evidence to make an arrest. This is the full story of the man dubbed the 'Night Stalker', who brought terror and violence to the streets of South London.

The Times Index
The Times Index

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2013-04

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13:

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Indexes the Times, Sunday times and magazine, Times literary supplement, Times educational supplement, Time educational supplement Scotland, and the Times higher education supplement.